Thursday, October 18, 2012

NAQP Pricing Study Delayed?

Apparently, if you're waiting on your copy of the NAPL/NAQP Pricing Study you may have to wait a few more days.... some strange signals being given out...
At first, it was promised to be available to participants by Graph Expo, but so far none of the participants have received their copy. When queried as to when it should be expected, NAPL is telling callers it is being printed & mailed as we speak? Maybe outsourced to China? In any event, if you call and attempt to order you are told it should be available by the end of the month!
You might take a very serious, close look at soem of the numbers they are claiming for participation. It just sounds fuzzy to me. I suspect someone has been playing around with the numbers but I cannot prove that.... it would be nice for NAPL to release the list of qualified participants, because that would surely clear up any speculation as to whether they have "cooked" their participation lists to make their survey look better than it is. Being able to track their participation rates, including names and addresses for the first 12 days of the survey (due to a gaping hole left in the survey) makes any subsequent claims as to participation levels somewhat suspect! How you jump from 14 participants to 285-290 in just a few short days is beyond my 25 years of experience conducting similar surveys.
What about the 2012-2013 Quick Printing Industry Pricing Study? More than 60 days ago participants were promised the study would be released and distributed to participants on or before Oct 12th, and guess what? The study was released on October 12th just as promised.
If you would like to order the "real" pricing study all you have to do is visit our main web site at: www.quickconsultant.com and then follow the appropriate links. You can also visit a page containing various graphs and charts extracted from the study.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Executive Salaries Produce Low ROI for Members


Overpaid or Underworked???
By now you've probably heard about many members of NAQP griping about the salaries being paid to top executives at NAPL and wondering what do the members get for their dues, especially in light of the fact that most of the key industry studies, if and when published, are only done so after securing sponsorships from vendors in the industry such as Xerox, Canon, KM and others.
Here's a look salaries paid to the top six executives at NAPL according to IRS form 990 filed for the calendar year 2010:
  • Joeseph Truncale, Pres/CEO...    $349,432
  • Timothy Fischer, SR. VP...       $217,557
  • William F. Woods, SR. VP...      $186,081
  • John Hyde, VP Consulting...      $202,108
  • Andrew Paparozzi, VP/Chf. Econ.  $181,195
  • Michael B. Philie, VP Conslt.    $178,812                
                           Total... $ 1,315,185


You would think a team this highly compensated would go out of their way to assist and reach out to members, answer their questions and produce conferences that folks would rave about, but such is not the case at NAPL/NAQP.
Many NAQP members are simply throwing up their hands in disgust asking exactly what is the association doing on their behalf? With less than 80 companies turning out for the latest NAQP Owner's Conference in Chicago, you would think the association would be desparately reaching out to members asking them how they can improve their services, but such does not appear to be the case. Maybe they are surveying in secret!

The Only Pricing Study that Printers Trust

As you may know, there are two industry pricing studies available for sale right now… the 2012-2013 Quick Printing Industry Pricing Study (the one published by QP Consulting, Inc. for more than 25 years), or the over-priced and statistically questionable pricing study available from NAPL/NAQP!
All I can tell you is if order the 2012-2013 Quick Printing Industry Pricing Study you will be getting the same high quality, statistically accurate, and super comprehensive pricing study that you and others have come to respect for more than 25 years! Remember too, our study is sold with a no-questions asked, 100% money-back guarantee if you are not totally satisfied with our publication.
Plus, if you order our study you’ll pay only $179, not the inflated $249 established for NAPL’s Pricing Study. You see, we price our studies as competitively as possible in order to get them in the hands of as many printers as we can. Consequently, if you order our study, the one published by QP Consulting, Inc. (my company), you will already be saving 28% as opposed to their published retail price. Plus, you’ll be getting so much more in terms of size, expertise and statistical accuracy… benefits you simply won’t get if you decide to go with the “other study.”
Remember too, that NAPL/NAQP has priced their study not on the basis of content and value, but rather to simply convey what they believe is a higher perceived value. On numerous occasions, I was told they really didn’t care about special sales or discounts or even increasing raw sales, since they have no out-of-pocket expenses to worry about…. They always get someone else with “deep pockets” like Xerox* to pick up the tab. NAQP/NAPL is just as happy to have another publication to put up on their shelves. Whether it sells or not isn’t a major concern. It’s simply “chicken-feed” for them, especially so when they have sponsors picking up the tab.
It’s your choice. Purchase the real Pricing Study from the same publisher that has been publishing this study for more than 25 years, or pay almost 40% more and purchase the “newcomer” on the block. Go here for more details and sample charts and graphs.

*I sometimes find myself feeling sorry for Xerox and other companies that are often pressured to pick up the tab for industry studies without knowing much about their structure, distribution or accuracy. Associations often turn to these vendors because they know they have deep pockets and $XXX to commit towards industry education. I have also found myself wondering over the years what are member dues used for other than to pay executive and administrative salaries, since they never seem to be used to fund industry research.


Thursday, October 11, 2012

NAQP Owner's Conference - Last Hurrah!

Rumors are rampant that NAQP/NAPL is already seriously considering dropping its annual NAQP Owner's Conference in 2013. The reasons are simple - a dismal turnout of only 79 NAQP members. If you count spouses and partners the number comes in at 89. In either case a number that is so poor that it will clearly lead to a lot of finger pointing within the association.
Even if you included vendors, officers, suppliers, speakers and even janitors, the total list of attendees was only 141 - put simply it was a miserable turn-out!
You know things are getting bad when you include six officers from the sponsoring organization in your "Official" attendance Roster.
Some folks both within the organization and without are already calling for "throwing in the towel" while others are questioning the experience or lack thereof of Mitch Evans, NAQP's Managing Director. Some folks claim Mitch is simply riding the gravy train while it lasts, while others say he means well, but is just in over his head.
Nonetheless, the numbers don't lie. NAQP had a turnout twice as large at its first meeting in Denver in the early 1980's.
The turnout for 2012 in Chicago is a pathetic reflection on how poorly the association is doing under the NAPL umbrella.
More thoughts on this later, as well some options you might want to consider in 2013.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Bored With Printing - Update on Hip Replacement

I think I set a new hospital record or sorts with my hip surgery. I went into surgery around 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday of last week and was standing outside the hospital with my walker standing over to the side on Friday at 10:30 a.m.
The doctor was great, the orthopaedic hospital looked more like a high end Hyatt, and the occupational and physical therapists were fantastic. I had the newer anterior total hip replacement and the normal recovery time is about half the time with few if any muscles requiring to be cut.
Once the OT showed up Thursday morning and showed me how to move and swivel my right leg off the side of the bed, which up until that point I was convinced was permanently paralyzed due to the nerve block they gave me, it was all over as far as keeping me in bed eating hospital food.
The PT's showed up and were in total shock when they walked into the room a few minutes later and discovered that I was already practicing on my own using the walker, they said, "Ok smart ass, show us what you can do without killing yourself," and they walked me to one of the hospitals large concrete staircases (as opposed to those little playhouse 3-step staircases they use in physical therapy, and said show us what you can do. I walked up and down 12 stairs, and that was about it. I was discharged Friday morning. It actually could have been Thursday evening but for all the paperwork that is involved.
I don't want to make light of it, or to sound like I am bragging, but I am proud. It is a serious operation but the stars were aligned and I was mentally prepped for the operation. And the two occupational therapists I had, plus the two PTs, were very encouraging that I should take charge of my own recovery.